Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Boy Parts by Eliza Clark

5 reviews

laureljanes's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Mental illness, Alcohol, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Animal death, Eating disorder, Gore, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Death, Drug abuse, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Violence, Drug use, Sexual violence, Blood, Cursing, Physical abuse, Stalking, and Vomit

Minor: Cancer and Terminal illness

kate_lemer's review

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

Is there any contemporary fiction book that I do not hate? The start of the book is irreverent, vulgar. It is a fresh writing style, a catchy beginning but gets old very fast. 

One quickly learns that Irina is very angry at the world, in an obnoxious, “stump your foot like a spoilt little child” way. It is entertaining in the beginning, but unfortunately, devolves into pure condescension for its sake. The author leaves us with nothing more to her character. Irina summed up in one sentence? It’s not my fault, honest. - not a direct quote but should be. 

It is woke-ism for its sake, but a very hypocritical one at that. I lost count of how many times Irina mentions men looking girly - a textbook example of internalized misogyny perhaps?

While I doubt it’s truly the case, this book reminds me of a very bad knock-off of the Russian Doll TV series. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. The hair, the name, the too on-the-nose vulgarity. However, where there is a point to the writing of the Russian Doll, I’m struggling to find anything in this atrocity. To paraphrase Irina - I have no sympathy.

By the time I got past the halfway point, the mere existence of this book started to offend me. I saw a glimmer of hope two thirds in where Irina started to descent into a bout of psychosis, trying to track her past which her mind had terribly skewed. I have to admit, the descent into madness was well written. Descent into madness might be the wrong word for it. It was the slow realisation that you were already mad to begin with, and you lied to yourself about it - Irin tells fantastic stories, in the original sense of the word. Finding the pictures in dvd cases was a very nice touch, very sixth sense-esque.

Unfortunately, that’s where the tension flopped. By the end, one does not reach any satisfaction from reading the book. A waste of time, getting the score it gets only for the part mentioned above.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Murder, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Terminal illness

lovegriefandgender's review

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is, and I do not say this lightly, the single most terrifying book I've ever read — if only because I caught myself mid-laugh gasping in horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Gore, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Misogyny, Murder, Biphobia, Blood, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Violence, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Bullying, Cancer, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Self harm, Addiction, Animal death, Pedophilia, Drug use, and Vomit

nialiversuch's review

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Classism, Dysphoria, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Cancer, Torture, and Terminal illness

penelopereads's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

No clue how to rate this book. I hated it but also didn’t. It was an extremely uncomfortable experience. I literally grimaced my way through it.

I’m trying not to give spoilers but I suppose there are MILD SPOILERS below. These are more notes for myself to help me work through how I feel about this book.



Eddie 💔

Bit Dolly/Emma Jane esque. Didn’t like that. Don’t appreciate that lifestyle. Main character is intolerable (but that’s the point.)

Did appreciate the flip of the usual predatory/violent/dangerous/ruthless and detached narrative.

Trauma? Mental health?

Enjoyed the did she/didn’t she?

Was impressed by what seemed like a very sudden/surprising shift about 2/3 through, which in retrospect was actually hinted at.

The use of the name, the cat and the bell (Schrödinger, much?) were clever and subtle but not too subtle.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit